NAME________________________________________
MOTION Practice
(Displacement, Distance, Speed and Velocity)
1. Billy walked 10 meters. He then remembered he forgot his tool belt so he walked back to his truck 10 meters.
a. What was Bill’s total displacement?
b. b. What was Bill’s total distance?
2. A soldier from the planet Nuru had to return to base in order to protect it from aliens. He ran 100 meters north to
the bridge. Stopped because a comrade had fallen and turned back south to get him. He ran 20 meters back. After
he got his buddy, he ran 50 more meters north to the base.
a. What was the soldier’s total displacement?
b. b. What was soldiers’s total distance?
3. Fill in the table using the variables: v, s, d, x and t
Topic
Equation
Distance
Units
Vector or Scalar
Displacement
Time
Speed
Velocity
4. Make a position-time graph of the following data. Time is on the x-axis. Position is on the y-axis. Make sure to LABEL
your axes.
TABLE:
Snails
TIME (s)
0
1
2
3
4
McKinney 2012
Distance (meters)
Slimey
0
1
2
3
4
Sloppy
0
2
4
6
8
Slurpy
0
3
6
9
12
5. What was the average velocity for: (HINT: look at the slope of each line)
a. Slimey:
b. Sloppy:
c. Slurpy:
6. Which snail was the
a. fastest?
b. slowest?
7. Baby Jade crawled 35 meters in 20 seconds. What was Baby Jade’s velocity? In the
table, write down your knowns and unknowns. Provide the Equation and ANSWER
with units.
KNOWN
UNKNOWN
8. Your amazing physics teacher was running late for work…that crazy traffic. The
teacher covered the 20 miles to the school in 30 minutes. What was the teacher’s
average velocity in miles/hour. (hint: 1600 m per mile). Make sure to write down
your knowns and unknowns. Provide the Equation and ANSWER with units.
KNOWN
UNKNOWN
9. Make a word problem to solve for speed. THEN solve the problem listing Knowns/unknowns, the equation and the
answer with units.
McKinney 2012
NAME________________________________________
MOTION Practice
(Displacement, Distance, Speed and Velocity)
3. Billy walked 10 meters. He then remembered he forgot his tool belt so he walked back to his truck 10 meters.
a. What was Bill’s total displacement? d = 0 m
b. b. What was Bill’s total distance?
d = 20 m
4. A soldier from the planet Nuru had to return to base in order to protect it from aliens. He ran 100 meters north to
the bridge. Stopped because a comrade had fallen and turned back south to get him. He ran 20 meters back. After
he got his buddy, he ran 50 more meters north to the base.
a. What was the soldier’s total displacement? d = 130 m
b. b. What was soldiers’s total distance? d = 170m
3. Fill in the table using the variables: v, s, d, and t
Topic
Equation
Distance
d = st
Units
m
Vector or Scalar
Scalar
Displacement
d = vt
m
Vector
Time
t = d/v
s
Scalar
Speed
s = d/t
m/s
Scalar
Velocity
v = d/t
m/s
Vector
4. Make a position-time graph of the following data. Time is on the x-axis. Position is on the y-axis. Make sure to LABEL
your axes.
The Speed of Snails Graph
14
Distance (m)
12
10
8
Slimey
6
Sloppy
4
Slurpy
2
0
1
2
3
Time (s)
McKinney 2012
4
5
TABLE:
Snails
TIME (s)
0
1
2
3
4
Distance (meters)
Slimey
0
1
2
3
4
Sloppy
0
2
4
6
8
Slurpy
0
3
6
9
12
5. What was the average velocity for: (HINT: look at the slope of each line)
a. Slimey: 1 m/s
b. Sloppy: 2 m/s
c. Slurpy: 3 m/s
6. Which snail was the
a. fastest? Slurpy
b. slowest? Slimey
7. Baby Jade crawled 35 meters west in 20 seconds. What was Baby Jade’s velocity?
In the table, write down your knowns and unknowns. Provide the Equation and
ANSWER with units.
v = d/t
v = 1.75 m/s
KNOWN
UNKNOWN
d = 35 m
v=?
t = 20 s
v = 35/20
8. Your amazing physics teacher was running late for work…that crazy traffic. The
teacher covered the 20 miles to the school in 30 minutes. What was the teacher’s
average velocity in miles/hour. (hint: 1600 m per mile). Make sure to write down
your knowns and unknowns. Provide the Equation and ANSWER with units.
v = d/t
KNOWN
UNKNOWN
d = 20 miles
v=?
t = 30 min
v = 40 miles/hr
v =
9. Make a word problem to solve for speed. THEN solve the problem listing Knowns/unknowns, the equation and the
answer with units.
Answers will vary
McKinney 2012